BEST VENUES

Ire­land has an in­ter­na­tional rep­u­ta­tion for host­ing bril­liant gigs, and we here look at a se­lec­tion of the finest venues around the coun­try.

Hot Press - - Contents -

We round-up Ire­land’s top venues – and also iden­tify the coun­try’s most es­sen­tial clubs.

BELFAS T

THE BELFAST EM­PIRE

42 Botanic Av­enue, Belfast Tel: (028) 9024 9276 the­belfastem­pire.com

A con­verted church that now puts on mu­sic and com­edy acts reg­u­larly, the Belfast Em­pire is one of the best venues in the city. Up­com­ing gigs in­clude per­for­mances from Bristol hard­core band Idles and some of Ire­land’s nest up­com­ing artists ROE, Munky and Susie Blue, while a re­cent gig from Gaeilge rap duo Kneecap proved to be one of the most ri­otous in Belfast in re­cent years. For good mea­sure, the beau­ti­ful ar­chi­tec­ture and great bal­cony also give the venue a won­der­fully in­ti­mate, cin­ema-like feel.

McHUGH’S Tel: (028) 9050 9999 mchughs­bar.com

A place of his­toric and ar­chi­tec­tural signi cance, McHugh’s is sit­u­ated in one of the old­est build­ings in Belfast and is a bar/ venue beloved by both lo­cals and any­one who nds them­selves wan­der­ing in from the ren­o­vated River La­gan front. For a long time, the bar was no­table mainly for good pints and its in­ter­est­ing his­tory, but since be­ing taken over by the Downeys Bar Group in 2011, the down­stairs base­ment has be­come one of the cosiest spots for gigs, and the bar is noted for pro­mot­ing emerg­ing Ir­ish acts. Wyvern Lingo, JC Ste­wart and Wild Youth have all played there in re­cent months, while Wheny­oung and a string of other bands are lined up to play in the months ahead.

CORK

CON­NOLLY’S OF LEAP Main Street, Leap, Co. Cork Tel: (086) 104 8377

De­scrib­ing it­self as “a tiny, in­ti­mate, third­gen­er­a­tion mu­sic venue where artists from all over the world come to play their most spe­cial shows”, Con­nolly’s Of Leap has reached mythic sta­tus over the course of its 80-odd years. Af­ter thou­sands of gigs, it was sold off by its own­ers in 2006, be­fore a now-leg­endary le­gal chal­lenge al­lowed the orig­i­nal founders’ grand­son to buy back the venue. Con­nolly’s re­opened to wide­spread joy across Cork back in 2015. Now, af­ter three years of per­for­mances from some of the best artists from Ire­land and be­yond – and an IMRO award to boot – Con­nolly’s is rmly among Cork’s top venues.

CORK OPERA HOUSE Em­met Place, Cork

Tel: (021) 427 0022 cork­op­er­a­house.ie

Com­ing into ex­is­tence way back in 1855, re­built in the ’60s and these days a state-ofthe-art venue, Cork Opera House com­bines his­tor­i­cal lus­tre with a vi­brant con­tem­po­rary sheen. An iconic struc­ture in the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic, its im­pres­sive in­te­rior and phe­nom­e­nal acous­tics make each show unique. The Opera House al­ways has an eclec­tic event cal­en­dar (Bon Iver and The Na­tional are just some of the names who’ve played there in re­cent months), and it of­fers ev­ery­thing from bal­lets and op­eras to the world’s big­gest com­edy and rock acts. Add in the award-win­ning House Cafe and two bars over two oors, and you’re all but guar­an­teed a great night out.

COUGH­LAN’S

7 Douglas Street, Cork Tel: (021) 4961751 cough­lans.ie

Es­tab­lished al­most two cen­turies ago, Cough­lan’s is steeped in his­tory. The pub it­self is a listed build­ing, and if the stone walls of its much-loved beer gar­den could talk, they would con rm what we al­ready know – that this venue de­liv­ers one of the nest nights out in the coun­try. Hav­ing won 2016’s IMRO Best Live Mu­sic Venue Award for Mun­ster, Cough­lan’s have made an au­thor­i­ta­tive step into the gig world, and they’ve con­trib­uted in no small way to Cork’s vi­brant live mu­sic scene. Up­com­ing gigs for the next few months in­clude Inni-K, Mark Geary, and Lisa O’Neill.

CRANE LANE THE­ATRE Phoenix Street, Cork

Tel: (021) 427 8487 cranelan­ethe­atre.ie

Part of the Cork Her­itage pub trail, the Crane Lane The­atre is lo­cated in the re­mains of an old gentle­man’s club in the cen­tre of Cork city. An ac­claimed venue, it has live mu­sic seven days a week and features ev­ery­thing from orig­i­nal folk and blues acts, to top­notch DJs, to some of the coun­try’s most fa­mous bands. On top of all that, they also host the­atre per­for­mances, bur­lesque, swing, jazz and coun­try. And that’s all be­fore men­tion­ing that the venue boasts its own home­grown ska & reg­gae fes­ti­val at the end of July. For good mea­sure, it’s also an in­te­gral lo­ca­tion for the Cork Jazz Fes­ti­val in Oc­to­ber.

CYPRUS AV­ENUE Caro­line Street, Cork Tel: (021) 427 6165 cyprusav­enue.ie

Found just above The Old Oak, Cyprus

Av­enue has been a pop­u­lar spot in the city since it opened its doors back in 2003. A place where live mu­sic mem­o­ries are made, it’s an in­te­gral part of Cork and the place to be if you want to see lo­cal acts, es­tab­lished artists and the hottest new bands on the verge of a big break­through. Some un­miss­able acts for the spring months in­clude Wu Tang Clan’s GZA, Orla Gart­land and True Tides.

LIVE AT ST. LUKE’S Liveat­stlukes.com

Win­ners of a spe­cial com­men­da­tion from Hot Press, as well as an award for IMRO Mun­ster Live Mu­sic Venue of the Year ear­lier this year, Live at St. Luke’s is sit­u­ated in a land­mark build­ing on Cork’s north­side. It has be­come known as one of the city’s pre­mier con­cert and cul­tural go-to des­ti­na­tions for a unique live mu­sic ex­pe­ri­ence, with Lit­tle Green

Cars, Mick Flan­nery, Bell X1, Vil­lagers, Lisa Han­ni­gan, Ta­los and Justin Ver­non (Bon Iver) all playing in re­cent years.

DONE­GAL

CHASING BULL

Main St, Bun­do­ran, Co. Done­gal Tel: (071) 984 1988 thechas­in­bull.com

Af­ter a re­fur­bish­ment in the late ’90s, Bun­do­ran bar Chasin’ Bull has gone on to es­tab­lish it­self as a pre-em­i­nent live venue. A no­table de­vel­op­ment found the bar team­ing up with Sea Ses­sions for a spe­cial Live & Un­signed com­pe­ti­tion, which has seen lo­cal tal­ent in Done­gal ght it out for a spot on the bill. In Jan­uary of this year, live bat­tles com­menced again, mak­ing for some ery shows. In ad­di­tion, the bar has gained ap­pre­ci­a­tion from an ar­ray of heavy-hit­ters, with Gavin James a noted fan. The bar also gained na­tional at­ten­tion when it re­ceived the award for Hot Press’ 2019 Venue of the Year.

LEO’S TAV­ERN

Meenaleck, Crolly, Co. Done­gal Tel: (074) 954 8143, leostav­ern.com

Sit­u­ated along the Wild At­lantic Way, be­tween the pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion of Mount Er­ri­gal and the sur ng havens along the Done­gal coast, Tab­hairne Leo is world renowned for be­ing the mu­si­cal home of mu­si­cians like Enya, Clan­nad and Moya Bren­nan (and in­deed all of the Bren­nan fam­ily) over the years. Orig­i­nally opened by Leo Bren­nan and his wife Marie in 1968, the bar is now un­der the pro­pri­etor­ship of youngest son Bart­ley, and a num­ber of ren­o­va­tions in re­cent years have placed Leo’s rmly among the north-west’s pre­mier venues. Framed plat­inum discs, fa­mous faces and mem­o­ra­bilia all adorn the walls of the bar, and ev­ery night of live mu­sic is guar­an­teed to be a good one. AN GRIANÁN THE­ATRE Let­terkenny, Co. Done­gal Tel: (074) 912 0777 an­gri­anan.com

Re­cent win­ners of the IMRO Award for Best Venue in Ul­ster, An Grianán is one of the nest in the busi­ness. Lo­cated in Let­terkenny, it has spent the last 20 years be­com­ing an in­te­gral part of the county’s thriv­ing cul­tural life and a ag­ship venue in the north­west of Ire­land. Up­com­ing events this spring in­clude Neil De­lamere live, John Cooper Clarke, and Mick Flan­nery.

DUBLIN

3ARENA

North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 819 8888 3arena.ie

One of the busiest, best–at­tended venues on the planet (it was ranked as the 15th high­est at­tended venue in the world in 2016), 3Arena is a tes­ta­ment to Dublin’s in­sa­tiable ap­petite for big gigs. This is where leg­endary rock acts and superstar pop artists come to strut their stuff. Once the old Point De­pot, to­day it’s an ul­tra–mod­ern fa­cil­ity with world–class acous­tics in the rein­vig­o­rated Dock­lands. Launched in 2008, we still mar­vel at how 3Arena can host a truly im­mer­sive show while be­ing a 14,000–seater – and there’s lit­er­ally not a bad seat in the house. As you would ex­pect, there’s a busy and var­ied line– up all year round, with the likes of Olly Murs, Walk­ing On Cars and Hugh Jack­man among the heavy­weight acts stop­ping off in 2019.

THE ACADEMY

57 Abbey Street Mid­dle, Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 877 9999 thea­cade­my­dublin.com

A well-es­tab­lished venue on the north­side, The Academy hosts ma­jor acts in an in­ti­mate set­ting. There have been some leg­endary nights here over the years, with acts as var­ied as Mog­wai, Snoop Dogg, Foals and

Odd Fu­ture all playing mem­o­rable gigs – not to men­tion Aza­elia Banks’ widely pub­li­cised Ir­ish visit ear­lier this year! Hold­ing just over 800, the venue boasts state-of-the-art light­ing and sound. Else­where in the build­ing, The Academy 2 and The Green Room are the places to be if you want a close-up view of in­ter­na­tional acts on the cusp of the big time.

BORD GÁIS EN­ERGY THE­ATRE Tel: (01) 677 7999 bor­dgaisen­er­gythe­atre.ie

Upon its open­ing in 2010, au­di­ences in­stantly took to the Bord Gáis En­ergy The­atre – lit­tle won­der, given its im­pres­sive decor and bril­liant sound. There’s al­ways a huge va­ri­ety of things go­ing on, with BGET hav­ing played host to ma­jor in­ter­na­tional stars of mu­sic,

for­mer pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates and huge the­atri­cal pro­duc­tions. A par­tic­u­lar high­light of last year was Gil­bert O’Sul­li­van’s ca­reerspan­ning per­for­mance, while this sum­mer, au­di­ences can look for­ward to fur­ther treats, as they’ll get to ex­pe­ri­ence David Gray in the esh (this April) and see The Pro­claimers live.

THE GRAND SO­CIAL

35 Lower Lif­fey Street, Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 874 0076 the­grand­so­cial.ie

Spread­ing mu­si­cal joy at the foot of the Ha’Penny Bridge, The Grand So­cial is one of the cap­i­tal’s busiest and most respected hubs of live mu­sic. Now un­der the man­age­ment of hos­pi­tal­ity en­tre­pre­neur Frank Gleeson, The Grand So­cial con­tin­ues to go from strength to strength. The 300-ca­pac­ity room has wel­comed the likes of Pri­mal Scream and

Jake Bugg in the past, while Rosie Car­ney, SOAK and even Amer­i­can band Whea­tus have all played in re­cent months. The Grand So­cial have con­sis­tently been sup­port­ers of the home-grown in­de­pen­dent mu­sic scene. With friendly staff and a splen­did in­te­rior, it’s also worth a visit if you sim­ply fancy a quiet drink.

THE OLYMPIA THE­ATRE 72 Dame Street, Dublin 2 Tel: (01) 679 3323 olympia.ie

One of the most revered venues in the cap­i­tal, over the years the Olympia has hosted the iconic likes of – deep breath! – James Brown, David Bowie, Ra­dio­head, Blur, PJ Har­vey, Suede, Manic Street Preach­ers, The Pix­ies, Queens Of The Stone Age and much, much more. Among the stand­out mo­ments in 2018, mean­while, were Hozier’s tri­umphant re­turn and Si­grid’s sold out per­for­mance. A won­der­fully at­mo­spheric room with im­pec­ca­ble sound, the Olympia is also a sec­ond home for some of Ire­land’s top artists, with the likes of Snow Patrol, Bell X1 and The Coronas all turn­ing in su­perb per­for­mances over the years.

THE SUGAR CLUB

8 Lee­son Street Lower, Dublin 2 the­sug­ar­club.com

Tel: (01) 678 7188

The Sugar Club opened its doors as one of Dublin’s pre­mier mu­sic venue in 1999. For­merly the Ir­ish Film The­atre, the venue re ects its cin­ema roots with plush tiered ban­quet seat­ing and a large screen avail­able for pro­jec­tions. The club has now spent two decades con­sol­i­dat­ing its place in Dublin nightlife by host­ing a mul­ti­tude of live mu­sic events, the­atre pro­duc­tions, movie screen­ings, live podcast shows, panel dis­cus­sions, con­fer­ences, art ex­hi­bi­tions, science shows, pri­vate par­ties, and more. It’s no won­der that it re­cently took home two IMRO Awards, for Na­tional Live Mu­sic Venue (as voted for by the pub­lic) and Dublin Live Mu­sic Venue of the Year.

THOMAS HOUSE

86 Thomas Street, Dublin 8

Tel: (085) 203 9047 facebook.com/thomashous­e­dublin

If it’s big name artists in a unique and un­usual set­ting that you like, Thomas House is the place for you. A favourite haunt of the Queen Of Rock­a­billy her­self, Imelda May, the venue reg­u­larly hosts acts that spe­cialise in ev­ery­thing from punk to old-fash­ioned R&B. Not only an al­ter­na­tive mu­sic haven, Thomas House also pro­claims it­self “the nest dive bar in Dublin city”. A sanc­tu­ary for love­able mis­cre­ants, if you’re a punk, rock­a­billy lover, skin­head, met­aller or plain old indie type, you’ll have a thor­oughly en­joy­able time. In­de­pen­dently owned and run by two lo­cal pro­mot­ers and DJs, it car­ries a fan­tas­tic range of pints and has DJs ev­ery night of the week.

VICAR STREET

58-59 Thomas Street, Dublin 8 Tel: (01) 775 5800 vi­carstreet.com

An­other of Dublin’s most beloved venues, over the years Vicar Street has hosted an eclec­tic ar­ray of top-notch acts, in­clud­ing Kendrick La­mar, Slash, Girl Band, Slint, Sonic Youth, Hope San­doval & The Warm In­ven­tions, Panda Bear, John Car­pen­ter and many more. As lauded as ever – it scooped the Hot Press Live Venue of the Year gong at the 2018 IMRO Awards – Vicar Street is also a hugely pop­u­lar com­edy venue, with the likes of Dara O Bri­ain, Tommy Tier­nan, Dy­lan Mo­ran and Ste­wart Lee among those to have turned in mem­o­rable per­for­mances. There’s an­other raft of ex­cel­lent shows on the way in 2019, with high­lights in­clud­ing Jamie Law­son, Drop­kick Mur­phys and Damien Dempsey.

WHE­LAN’S

25 Wex­ford Street, Dublin 2

Tel: (01) 478 0766 whe­lanslive.com

Over quar­ter-of-a-cen­tury old, Whe­lan’s re­mains at the heart of the Ir­ish live scene. Its iconic sta­tus long as­sured, the Wex­ford Street venue con­tin­ues to go from strength to strength, and cap­tured the Dublin Live Mu­sic Venue of the Year gong at the 2018 IMRO Awards. With great sound and a warm at­mos­phere, there are few bet­ter places to catch an act about to go in­ter­stel­lar. The venue ex­cels at spot­ting fu­ture heavy­hit­ters – the likes of Jeff Buck­ley, Nick Cave and a fresh-faced Arc­tic Mon­keys have all played. In ad­di­tion, a host of Ire­land’s big­gest names, Damien Rice and Glen Hansard in­cluded, got their start here. In­deed, a young Ed Sheeran caught Rice back in the day – and it made such an im­pres­sion that he picked Whe­lan’s as the place for his su­perb VH1: Sto­ry­tellers spe­cial.

THE WORK­MAN’S CLUB 10 Welling­ton Quay

Tel: (01) 670 6692 the­work­man­sclub.com

Some­thing of a HQ for pub­go­ers and mu­si­cians alike, the Work­man’s Club re­stored the decor of an old ne­glected work­ing man’s club to cre­ate a to­tally 21st cen­tury venue. Prid­ing it­self on its abil­ity to mix big name acts – like Nathaniel Rateliff and Beach Slang – with home­grown he­roes such as Al­tered House and The Foun­tains, the venue’s in­ti­mate feel reg­u­larly makes for barn­storm­ing shows. In 2017, the awe­some per­for­mance by Lon­don art-pop con­tenders HMLTD was a ma­jor high­light. Up­com­ing high­lights this year, mean­while, in­clude Thanks Brother, Jack O’Rourke and Sons Of The East.

GA LWAY

MON­ROE’S LIVE

14 Do­minick Street Up­per, Gal­way Tel: (091) 583 397 mon­roes.ie

One of the best in the west, and lo­cated above one of the most beloved wa­ter­ing holes in the city, Mon­roe’s Live hosts a gig ev­ery night of the week. Pretty much the en­tire spec­trum of mod­ern mu­sic is cov­ered by this multi-pur­pose club. Cel­e­brat­ing its eighth birth­day this year, Mon­roe’s Live is part of the Mon­roe’s tav­ern busi­ness that has been go­ing strong for over half-a-cen­tury. From ex­pert cover acts to orig­i­nal artists, there’s some­thing for ev­ery­one, with their trad nights in par­tic­u­lar en­joy­ing plenty of praise. The main room boasts a top-end sound and light­ing set-up, while the Back Stage bar of­fers a cosy and in­ti­mate spot for acous­tic ses­sions.

ROISIN DUBH

Lower Do­minick Street, Gal­way Tel: (091) 586 540 roisin­dubh.net

What Whe­lan’s is to the east, Roisin Dubh is to the west. A chief hang–out for mu­si­cians in Con­nacht, it has be­come one of Ire­land’s best–loved venues over the course of two decades. Show­ing the es­teem in which it con­tin­ues to be held, back in 2018, the Roisin Dubh picked up IMRO’s Live Mu­sic Venue of the Year Award for Con­nacht. With their book­ers con­tin­u­ally hav­ing their ngers on the pulse, you only get the cream of the crop grac­ing the Roisin Dubh stage. From rising Ir­ish bands to A–list in­ter­na­tional artists like Ed Sheeran, they em­brace acts at ev­ery level, so long as they have the chops to put on a terri c show.

K E R RY

INEC

Muck­ross Road, Kil­lar­ney, Co. Kerry Tel: (064) 667 1555 inec.ie

A strong­hold of live en­ter­tain­ment in Mun­ster, Ire­land’s Na­tional Events Cen­tre has hosted nu­mer­ous world class acts since open­ing in 2000. With sell-out per­for­mances by artists rang­ing from Niall Ho­ran to Hozier, the INEC is now of cially recog­nised as one of the coun­try’s leading venues. Last year, it re­ceived a spe­cial com­men­da­tion from Hot Press as ‘Reader’s Choice Live Venue of the Year 2018’. Able to ac­com­mo­date be­tween 200 and 4,000 peo­ple, switch­ing ef­fort­lessly from the in­ti­mate to the arena–sized, the likes of The Fureys, Tears For Fears and Nathan Carter have all per­formed in re­cent months. Go­ing back a few decades fur­ther, dance icons The Prodigy played the old Ball­room be­fore the big time beck­oned, so you can’t deny the venue’s pedi­gree!

McCARTHY’S

Goat Street, Up­per Main Street, Din­gle Tel: (066) 915 2401 facebook.com/McCarthys­d­in­gle

When you think of Din­gle, you think of great sight-see­ing and quiet evenings in cosy pubs (and pos­si­bly dol­phins!), but McCarthy’s is a thriv­ing venue that brings some of the coun­try’s nest mu­si­cians to the fa­mous Kerry town. Over the past few years, the likes of The Frames, The Coronas and Mick Flan­nery have all pitched up for won­der­fully snug and at­mo­spheric shows, so it re­ally is a chance to see top artists in a to­tally unique en­vi­ron­ment. With a ca­pac­ity of just 60 peo­ple, the only prob­lem might be nd­ing a seat!

MIKE THE PIES

28 Pa­trick Street, Listowel, Co. Kerry Tel: (068) 21259 mikethep­ies.com

Don’t be mis­led by the unas­sum­ing, though hardly sub­tle, green, white and gold façade of this homely small town pub; Mike the Pies has put out the wel­come mat to some of Ire­land’s most well known artists. Re­cent acts to have graced the stage and en­joyed the lively at­mos­phere in­clude Fang­club, Fon­taines DC and Danny O’Reilly (of Coronas fame). With an abil­ity to draw big names of that cal­i­bre, it’s no sur­prise that Mike The Pies won the IMRO Na­tional Live Venue of the Year 2017 Award. The bar has been in the O’Connor fam­ily for over a cen­tury, but it was only in the past three years that the own­ers de­cided to fo­cus their at­ten­tion on live mu­sic, with a Frank & Wal­ters gig get­ting the ball rolling. It’s been hugely suc­cess­ful ever since…

KILKENNY

SET THE­ATRE

Lang­ton House Ho­tel, 69 John Street, Kilkenny

Tel: (056) 776 5133 set.ie

Eight years on the go, the Set The­atre has rmly es­tab­lished it­self as a bril­liant, state-of-the-art venue. A beau­ti­ful build­ing – de­signed by David Collins in Lon­don – it reg­u­larly hosts lms, mu­sic and com­edy, and gets thor­oughly in­volved in town af­fairs when the Rhythm & Roots, Cat Laughs, Trad­fest and Kilkenny Arts fes­ti­vals kick into life.

L AOIS

KA­VANAGH’S BAR & VENUE

28 Main Street, Money­bal­ly­tyrrell, Port­laoise Tel: (057) 862 1744 ka­vanagh­sport­laoise.com

Es­tab­lished in 1869, Ka­vanagh’s is the old­est fam­ily-run pub in Port­laoise. That’s a size­able achievemen­t in it­self, but what has set Ka­vanagh’s apart in re­cent years is its re­newed com­mit­ment to putting on unique live mu­sic nights. Both of Ka­vanagh’s bars have been re­fur­bished in re­cent years, with the up­stairs area be­ing trans­formed into a truly out­stand­ing live mu­sic venue. Re­cent times have seen Ir­ish house­hold names such as Neil De­lamere, True Tides and Le Galaxie take to the stage, with more ex­cit­ing gigs to come in the very near fu­ture – in­clud­ing a spe­cial per­for­mance from Alabama 3 this April.

LIM­ER­ICK

DOLAN’S

4 Dock Road, Lim­er­ick Tel: (061) 314 483 dolans.ie

In the game for over two decades, Dolan’s rep­u­ta­tion con­tin­ues to grow as the acts they wel­come get big­ger and big­ger. Com­pris­ing an Ir­ish pub and restau­rant, three venues and two out­door ar­eas, it is run by own­ers Mick and Valerie, with the whole fam­ily help­ing out. Walk­ing On Cars and Vil­lagers are Ir­ish acts who have had mem­o­rable shows, while there have also been sets from in­ter­na­tional heavy-hit­ters like Kasabian and Mumford & Sons.

LOUTH

SPIRIT STORE

G Tel: (042) 935 2697 spir­it­store.ie

Mak­ing things glo­ri­ously loud in Louth, the Spirit Store is the key venue in Dun­dalk and proof pos­i­tive that there’s plenty go­ing on be­tween the big cities of Dublin and Belfast. If an Ir­ish artist is hit­ting the road, you can be sure the Spirit Store will gure highly in their plans. The Dun­dalk crowds con­jure up a great at­mos­phere ev­ery sin­gle show, with acts like Kaz Hawkins and Luka Bloom among those to look for­ward to in the months ahead. The Spirit Store also hosted a par­tic­u­larly mem­o­rable gig when Hozier and El­lie Gould­ing pitched up at the quay­side venue, for a sur­prise per­for­mance as part of Guin­ness Am­plify.

SLIGO

5TH ON TEELING

5 Teeling Street, Sligo Tel: (071) 914 6842 5thon­teel­ing.com

A jewel in the north-west for sev­eral years now, 5th On Teeling has been bring­ing some ex­tremely ne sounds to Sligo. As well as playing host to an eclec­tic va­ri­ety of DJ sets and a monthly com­edy club, it books some of the best mu­si­cal acts around, with turns from the likes of The Aca­demic and The

Hot Sprock­ets in pre­vi­ous years. Its im­pact was recog­nised at the 2015 IMRO Live Mu­sic Venue Awards, when it re­ceived a Spe­cial Award from Hot Press edi­tor Niall Stokes, for its con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of the north-west scene.

WEX­FORD

THE NA­TIONAL OPERA HOUSE High Street, Wex­ford

Tel: (053) 912 2144 na­tion­al­op­er­a­house.ie

The Na­tional Opera House was opened in 2008 to pro­vide a suitable home for Wex­ford’s his­toric and award-win­ning Wex­ford Fes­ti­val Opera. Since then, the stylish venue has been des­ig­nated Ire­land’s Na­tional Opera House by the Min­is­ter of Arts in 2014, and gone on to take the main prize at 2017’s IMRO Live Venue Of The Year Awards. The Na­tional Opera House con­tains two per­for­mances spa­ces: the 771-seat O’Reilly The­atre, which can be ex­tended to an 855-seat ca­pac­ity; and the versatile 172-seat Jerome Hynes The­atre, along with nu­mer­ous meet­ing and hos­pi­tal­ity fa­cil­i­ties and bars. As well as pro­vid­ing a home to the high arts, the Na­tional Opera House also features con­tem­po­rary mu­sic and com­edy.

WEX­FORD ARTS CEN­TRE Corn­mar­ket, Fer­ry­bank South, Wex­ford Tel: (053) 912 3764 Wex­for­darts­cen­tre.ie

Host­ing ev­ery­thing from ex­hi­bi­tions, book launches, chil­dren’s work­shops and drama, to mu­sic, pub­lic talks, cabaret and pup­pet shows, Wex­ford Arts Cen­tre of­fers a re­mark­ably eclec­tic ar­ray of events.

For good mea­sure, there’s also cin­ema, pho­tog­ra­phy, chil­dren’s the­atre events, im­prov and sum­mer schools, with gallery space avail­able to rent too. In ad­di­tion, the cen­tre sup­ports ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes in schools, as well as many other off-site projects.

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